Turning Tricks
by Querel
Summary: Discontinued. John comes down with a strange affliction that seems innocent enough at first, despite how odd it is. However, his sudden transformation begins a series of disturbing happenings as his friends come to realize just how dangerous he has become.
1. The First Day: Part One

It took him a few hours, but Dave finally managed to find John. He'd been worried—though he'd never let on—about the derp in glasses ever since the insomnia started inflicting him. John had been restless for weeks, wandering around the Prospit ship without aim, unable to even rest for longer than ten minutes. The kid had started wasting away, his appetite shot from lack of sleep. The cheery sparkle of his blue eyes had long turned dull.

Neither Dave not Jade could figure out what was wrong with him. Jade started to worry that John's weakened condition would end up eating at his mind. He was already taking on the effects of conscious catatonia, if that was even a thing. With the way John stumbled around like the undead, Dave couldn't think of a more appropriate term for his state.

Dave tried not to let his paranoia get the best of him, keeping it stifled as best as he could. With John being in God Tier, how much could this problem actually hurt him? Or should he be panicking over the fact that it was happening in the first place?

Either way, when John went missing, Dave's fear spiked. Normally, Dave would find John pacing between his bedroom and the deck or lingering in the lab to play hours and hours of video games. But Dave had wandered the entire ship and found no trace of his best friend. He had already made the decision to go find Jade and ask for her help when he passed by his own bedroom and found the door ajar.

Dave raised an eyebrow and approached the room, sliding partially through the open space and partway through the door itself. Being a Sprite had its perks sometimes…. His room was dark as he had left it. Nothing had been disturbed from their places. The only difference was that in the corner, on Dave's bed, there was something that he hadn't ever put there. Dave floated over to his bed, fingers flexing in preparation to summon a weapon if he needed it.

The figure on Dave's bed was curled up, nestled in the downy blankets. Sleeping. They faced the wall; Dave could only see the back of their head. That left him with the sight of short, yellow-blond hair and a baby-pink hooded shirt. Dave's brow scrunched and his mouth twisted in a grimace. What the fuck was this? And was that…a lollipop? Seriously?

Baffled, Dave was still trying to figure out what to do next when the person rolled over. His gut clenched in a shock; a finger of ice stroked down Dave's spine and he froze.

The kid's eyes were open, glassy and lifeless, like a doll. They weren't a normal blue but bright as the afternoon sky in the middle of spring, spread wide as if to swallow the entire universe. Dave stared straight into them and a heavy dread landed in his throat.

This kid... This kid was John. No one else had that buck-toothed grin and oh gog, he was smiling. Dave's body panged with nausea as he could only reckon the sight with the face of his lifelong haunt, Lil' Cal. Dave began to think he was having a nightmare.

Despite the eerie stillness and glazed expression, this John was actually sleeping. Dave's eye twitched behind his shades as he watched the thin shoulders rise and fall in steady breaths. Okay, so, John had suddenly turned into a bubblegum freak puppet and fallen asleep with his eyes open. Seemed pretty legit: a dream. Dave wasn't believing his own suspicions, though. Even he wasn't so cracked up as to dream shit like this. It was seriously freaking him the fuck out.

"John?" Dave tried, reaching out hesitantly. "John, wake up."

A hand snatched Dave's wrist.

John blinked, the glazed darkness of his glitter blue eyes of his glitter blue eyes focusing on Dave's face in pinprick pupils. Internally, Dave was flipping his shit.

"Dave!" John said, his voice high and lilting. "Why did you wake me up? I'm so tired." Dave swallowed.

"John," he tried again, gathering himself back together. "John, is that really you, bro?"

"Of course it's me!" John laughed. Dave's frown deepened. Shit sounded like some hyped-up kiddie on crack. "You're silly!"

"And you've got candy stuck to your head." Because he really didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah, that's true." John grinned. Still lying down but looking straight at him, he tugged on Dave's hand. "Come on, I'm tired. Cuddle with me; it'll be nice."

Okay, yeah, this wasn't John.

"Uh, not that I ain't down for some bro on bro cuddle magic but I think we should—"

"Dave, come on, I'm sleepy," John interrupted. He nudged at his eyes from under his glasses and that creepy puppet likeness vanished, leaving this kitten-face behind. "Please, let's just sleep. If you're here, I'll feel better. I've missed being with you."

Dave paused. And then he sighed. No one could sucker punch him in the heart like John could, even if he was some strange hallucination. Dave made a note to chat with Rose as soon as he could. Maybe if she shrunk his brain a little, he could rid himself of this mess.

He looked "John" over again. He did look a bit like John, other than the whacky colors and odd aura of terror he was giving off initially. He didn't quite sound like John. He definitely wasn't acting very much like John. But Dave could see the deep purple rings under the sparkling ice eyes and the grip around his wrist was gentle, the smile now familiarly sweet. He could only believe that this was indeed John—lollipop locks aside—since he hadn't found him anywhere else. Seeing that weary face ate into him and Dave found himself caving.

"Alright, fine."

"Yay!" Pink-John scuttled and fussed through the blankets, pulling Dave into the bed with him. He covered them both and then wrapped around and rested himself on Dave's chest, tucking his blond head under Dave's chin.

"Take your glasses off," Dave muttered, doing it for him and putting them aside. John giggled, a quiet dynamic little tune of laughter that Dave hadn't ever heard.

"I can tell you love me, Dave," he whispered, shifting a bit to make himself comfortable.

"Try to sleep with your eyes closed this time, a'right?" Dave said, brushing over the earlier comment since he had no fucking clue what to do with it.

"Okay! Goodnight, Dave."

John fell asleep almost instantly, his breathing becoming lulled and steady, leaving Dave to gaze up at the ceiling with one arm around those skinny shoulders and try to figure out if he really was imagining all this shit. While he pondered, bluest eyes stared straight into the darkness, a sweet grin beneath them, keeping secrets in deep dreams.


	2. The First Day: Part Two

Dave somehow did manage to fall asleep despite how unnerved he was. And even when he woke up, Pink-John was still sleeping. Very soundly. And still pink, he noticed. Dave phased through the bed as gently as possible, leaving John behind to keep resting. He needed to find Jade.

"Where the heck have you been?" she asked when he joined her at the helm. She was alternating between float-juggling the planets and doodling around with the ship's steering as she often did when she was bored.

"In my room," Dave said. "With…John?"

Jade turned and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Are you making innuendos just for the sake of irony or should I be congratulating you on a breakthrough?"

"What? No, no, shut up." Dave shook his head a couple times. "Something fucked up happened to John."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jade got to her feet, obvious worry coloring her face as the ears on her head laid flat in unease.

"He's…he's wrong." Dave ran his fingers through his hair and his wings ruffled nervously. "He's blond and pink and giggly. And sleeping like the dead. Seriously: I found him in my room, asleep, with his eyes open like someone shocked him to death. Fuckin' scared the shit outta me."

The Witch furrowed her brow.

"Well, it's great that he's finally sleeping. But all that other stuff just confused me."

"I'm not being poetically metaphoric or anything," Dave insisted. "For real, he's changed colors. Like someone took him—mind and body—and dipped him in cotton candy. He's like some horror-precious baby doll straight from a cracked out Japanese music video."

"Okay, now you are talking in metaphors; shut up." Jade sighed and tucked the planets down to floating charms about her wrist. "I'll find out for myself."

She Spacey-Thinged them both back to Dave's room and squeaked in horror when the first thing she saw were John's eyes. It woke him but he still smiled and, like he did before, John called out to the one who woke him.

"Jade!" He reached for her but didn't sit up or leave the bed. She didn't go to him. Dave watched from the doorway.

"John?" Jade asked carefully.

"Jeez! It's like you guys lost your eyeballs or something!" He laughed. "Did you both fall and hit your heads or what?"

"John, you're different," Jade said, cautiously approaching the bed to sit next to him. Her eyes frantically skipped from point to point on him, assessing all the changes. John nodded. Somehow, that lollipop didn't even shift.

"I feel so much better," he agreed. "My head doesn't hurt anymore. I'm still tired but I do feel like eating again!"

"No, I mean, you _look_ different," Jade clarified. "Have you seen yourself?"

"Sure I have," John said. "I'm still me, I promise. Just a little goofier." He stuck his tongue out and shrugged as best a person could while still lying on their side. Thin piano fingers slid their way to Jade's hand and squeezed gently. She blinked but when he smiled up at her, she smiled back and reached down to ruffle his blond hair.

"I believe you," she said.

"For real?" Dave muttered under his breath, his eyes rolling so hard his head rolled with them. The other two didn't seem to notice.

"Do you think you could get Jaspersprite to make some food for me?" John asked. "I'd like to rest a little longer, but I'm really, really hungry now."

"Yeah, sure, John!" Jade said. "Anything in particular?"

"Cake!"

Jade laughed.

"Alright. But maybe something lighter first?" The girl looked down at her friend in his strange state. Even through the weird colors and persistent grin, she could see him. Of course this was John. There was some reason for his transformation and in time, she'd figure that out. But for now, she was just happy that he was feeling better.

The increase in affection was a bonus, too, as his fingers in her hand tickled at her palm. She giggled and he laughed along with her.

"Your laugh is cute," he said.

"John! You're making me blush."

"Also cute."

"Okay, okay, enough with the shameless flirting," Dave cut in, floating over to the both of them.

"Heheh, right. I'll get started on dinner for you, okay?" Still smiling, Jade poked John's nose, making him laugh again, and then teleported out of the bedroom.

Dave sighed and turned away from the boy who was still curled up in his sheets.

"Why here?" he asked Pink-John. "Why couldn't you just sleep in your own room?"

"Because I knew you'd come back here eventually and I wanted to be with you."

"Do you even hear what you're saying? What are you, some kind of cheesy romantic line generator?"

John laughed, shifting around until he was finally sitting up. The blankets fell around his folded legs and showed the entirety of his pinked God Tier outfit. It still had the symbol of Breath on the front in its candy blue color, only the background to it was that pink, framed with a blush-colored bow at the place where his hood met the shirt. The long pants were gone and replaced instead with a pair of blue shorts, a little too short, in Dave's opinion. And then stockings.

This kid was wearing thigh highs. Pink and blue. With bows at the top.

"What—"

But Dave couldn't even gather a coherent thought to comment on John's threads. The fabric stretched over the still supple curves of John's thighs and along the gentle bow of his calves, not yet muscled by the onset of puberty.

"I dunno," John said, tilting his head to one side as he pulled the hood over his lollipopped head. "I'm feeling a bit more spontaneous and silly. Just being around you guys makes me happy and I can't stop myself from wanting to make you smile. So it's easy just to go with my impulses."

Dave blinked and looked back up at John's face, finally able to tear his eyes away from those stockings.

Seriously, what the fuck?

John was still smiling at him. He'd found his glasses and put them back on.

"I can tell you're freaked out," John continued. "Seriously, it's still me. Just like it's still you, you know?" The smile slipped a little bit on John's mouth. "You have to believe me, dude. I don't know what I'll do if you can't."

Dave sighed. Yeah, but the issue was that John didn't have a thing like time travel to back up his claim there. There would be skepticism as long as Dave didn't have a real explanation. He didn't need to see John sad though, no matter what he looked like. It wasn't something he was willing to deal with. Ever.

"Hey, it's cool," Dave said, sitting down next to John on the bed. John immediately wrapped his arms around Dave's middle and scooted close to him. Dave, a bit startled, just stared down at him for a minute before letting an arm wrap around the pink shoulders. He was so warm….

"You're my best bro even if you do look like some fetish baby."

"Dave, don't be a dick," John laughed into his shoulder. "It's not like I _chose_ to look like this. It just happened!"

"Nah, you dig it."

"But you meant that, right?" John asked, looking up at him with those achingly blue eyes. "You promise I'm your best bro no matter what, right?"

Dave took a little breath and nodded, wondering what it was about that face that got to him.

"I promise."


	3. The First Day: Part Three

**WARNING:** Emetophilia

* * *

"Dude, is that cake batter?"

"Just a little." John looked up at Dave with a great beaming grin and settled comfortably next to him on the couch. "It's got sprinkles in it."

"Yeah, I can see that," Dave said, a snort punctuating his statement. He rolled his eyes. Honestly, the kid had already eaten Jade's pumpkin soup, half a loaf of bread and a generous helping of red velvet cake already and now he was sticking his fingers in a bowl of funfetti batter and slurping it up. What an appetite….

At least he was eating again. If John kept that up, he'd be back from his half-emaciated slump in no time. Of course, Dave would demand some practice sparring to make sure he didn't go soft. Kid flew around on the wind all the time, it was so easy for him to get lazy. Dave had only let up recently because of the insomnia. That was gone, though it left the oddity that John currently was in its wake.

Dave was now comfortably settling in his decision that yes, this _was,_ in fact, his friend and the most he had to worry about were a few aesthetic changes and some newfound cuddliness. Whatever. He could deal with that. Course, it wasn't like he was super enthusiastic about the whole thing. He knew that he was going to have to find a way to get John back to normal but he'd probably need help for that one.

Jade had told them a while back that they'd finally be making contact with the asteroid in a few more weeks. When they got there, Dave planned to ask Rose for her help. She tended to know well enough about freaky shit. She surely could figure something out. Even if it was just to explain what happened exactly.

"What's this we're watching again?" Dave asked as he glanced lazily at the TV and then looked away. Because no matter what it was, he honestly did not care and he wasn't going to watch it.

"Something I just happened to alchemize by accident," John said, smearing a drip of cake batter off his chin. "It's called 'The Wall.' It's rated R! This is the first one I've seen without Nic Cage in it."

"Hmm."

Dave probably would've made a snide and ironic comment about how John should've asked his Dad for permission before viewing R films without his cinematic angel, Mr. Cage. But he didn't. Because he wasn't as much of a feathery asshole as some people would like to believe.

That shit still hurt….

Twenty minutes into the movie or so, Dave honestly found himself interested. It was like some super-long and drawn out music video from the eighties. Trippy as fuck, but had some pretty good songs. Every now and then his gaze would slide sideways to where John was sitting next to him on the couch—very much invading his space—and lapping up cake batter from his fingers, his eyes glued to the screen.

He was making a mess of it, too. Three fingers at a time swirling around in the bowl on his lap, overloaded with cake goop and then brought to that buck-toothed mouth, dripping down his hand and chin until a wet, pink tongue would slide out and clean it all up.

Utter-fuckingly obscene.

And though Dave didn't quite know what he thought about the whole spectacle, he knew that it was fascinating enough to keep stealing glances. Something disgusting and simultaneously wondrous. Like eyes still blinking after a head had been chopped off or a really intense nosebleed.

They stayed there, silent, for most of the movie. Normally, Dave had plenty of commentary to offer with John's shitty choices in films, but he was too busy watching (both the movie and John) to find anything to say. Sure, a few thoughts occurred to him. He kept them to himself, though.

The bowl of batter had been finished before the movie was halfway over and Dave just let himself get lost in it, only looking at John whenever anything resembling sex happened upon the screen. To gauge the boy's reactions, of course. Most of which were some eye-glittering, cheek-flushing, nervous swallowing gazes of intense focus.

Dave would've laughed at him. But he couldn't.

About two verses into 'Comfortably Numb,' John started making these grunting exhales and shifting around in his seat.

"What's up?" Dave asked.

"I don't feel very good," John said, a tinge of pain whining in his voice.

"That's what you get for eating straight-up cake soup, bro," Dave said, sighing. "You okay?"

"No…."

"Well close your eyes a bit and don't think about it. It'll go away."

John leaned against Dave's shoulder and took a deep breath, his eyes closing but with his brow twinged. Dave peered down at him and frowned, his hand going to the boy's back to rub steady circles since he couldn't sit there and do nothing.

"_There is no pain, you are receding…."_

"This movie is whack," Dave muttered through the flashing cuts between the drugged-out rockstar and images of maggots squirming around in dirt.

"Ugh…."

"I told you to close your eyes, dude."

"I don't think I—" John coughed. He lurched away from Dave, his hand slapping over his mouth as he coughed again, a groan of strain pealing out under it. And then there was the sick sound of liquid splattering on the floor.

"Whoa, jeez!"

Dave watched as the wet spray of vomit gushed from between John's fingers, splattering on his face and falling to his stockinged feet. John's hand fell away and he coughed again, falling to his knees. He heaved, gagging vocally before more of his stomach came slopping onto the ground beneath him.

Dave had already vacated the couch and was trying to react—help or get help?—when he stopped. The puddle beneath John's convulsing form was _rainbow_. Not like the sick swill of everything the guy had eaten in a brownish amalgamation of gut-juice but legitimately chromatic. From the most vivid bloodreds to the deepest of violets and everything between it, swirling in bright splashes and creeping around John's splayed fingers.

"Dave…."

Dave jolted out of his stunned state and looked at John's face. There were spots of orange on his glasses. Green and pink and blue dripped from his chin and down his throat, staining his shirt at the collar.

"Help mhhh…. Can't…. –eathe…."

"Okay, okay, come on, sit up." Dave shook his head and went to his friend, pulling him up by his shoulders. "You get it all out?"

"Uhnnghh…."

"Just calm down…."

Dave watched John's face closely, the thin sheen of sweat at his brow where the blond locks stuck to his skin and the gentle shift of his lips as he slowly made himself breathe in…and out again. Then John's stomach contracted violently and more of the colorful liquid dribbled down his front, completely missing his fingers that had lifted half-heartedly to try and catch the mess.

A few tears streamed down John's face and he hiccupped a couple times.

Dave frowned, really unsure of what to do with any of this. He was stuck staring at John covered in rainbow vomit with his eyes watering and his chest hitching like he couldn't draw breath. Probably because he couldn't….

With a sigh and a second try at his new 'fuck this' attitude towards John's freakishness, Dave scooped his friend up into his arms and floated them both back to John's room. He set John down on the bed.

"Can you get your shirt off?" Dave asked before going over to the closet and rooting around in it. He eventually found one of John's old T-shirts, but it too had been color changed. The green slime ghost was now pink and the white background had turned to that baby blue. Dave shook his head, adding it to the list of things he didn't care about anymore and then floated back over to where John was trying to pull his shirt off without smearing his face with puke.

Wordlessly, Dave slipped his hands under the stained shirt and used them to stretch the neck-hole a little wider so he could slip it off of John's head. He then threw the shirt aside and handed John the cleaner one before rooting around for something to wipe him up with.

"Tastes like cake batter," John rasped as he pulled the new shirt on.

"Haha, you're a fantastic prankster, John," Dave said. He found a box of tissues and tossed them over to John.

"Trickster."

"Whatever you say, dude."

John cleaned himself up and sighed, looking back at Dave with a tired smile on his face.

"That sucked."

"You've got sick on your glasses," Dave said, gesturing to them.

"Ah, man…." John pulled his glasses off and started wiping them up.

"So, what, you barf rainbows now?"

"Apparently." John chuckled a little. But not too hard. He set his glasses on the nightstand and crawled deeper into bed. "Freak you out?"

"A lot." Dave swallowed and shook his head. "Try not to do that ever again. For the sake of everyone's general health and sanity. No more cake for you."

"Aw, damn, I was just thinking I wanted one! Oh, no, no, no I don't. Ugh…no food ever again ever."

"Yeah, see? Shut up and rest." Dave knuckle-bumped the lollipop on John's head and then turned to leave.

"Dave?" John called.

"What?"

"Will you rub my stomach? It felt really good when you rubbed my back earlier."

Dave turned back and looked at where John was lying with the blanket thrown back to accommodate another person wiggling in next to him. The renewed paleness of his face—chalky and a little sallow—made the circles under his eyes deeper in their weariness.

"Depends, are you gonna upchuck with all the colors of the wind on me?"

John laughed.

"Only if you ask nicely."

"Scoot your frilly ass over, then."

Dave gathered the boy against himself and gently smoothed his palm over John's stomach in slow circles. John reached and pulled his shirt out from under Dave's fingers so there was no shift of fabric between Dave's hand and the warm skin of John's belly. Steadily, John drifted off again. Of course, his eyes were still open. So Dave closed them carefully. He didn't cease in his soothing strokes, hypnotized and stuck on a mental replay cycle of watching thick, wet colors slip down a dangling tongue and trembling piano fingers.

Disgusting.

Wondrous.

-The First Day Ends-


	4. The Seventh Day

**WARNING**: Graphic Violence

* * *

This game wasn't really funny anymore.

Dave wandered the dark hallways of the Prospit ship, gripping his sword in both hands. He braced himself against a corner, listening as hard as he could to try and pick up any sounds. The hall was silent. No noises came to wiggle in through the stifling cushion of quiet that surrounded him.

He had to get to Jade. He hoped to whatever omniscient being presided over this fucked up game that there could be an ounce of mercy left: just spare the furry girl. Hopefully her Space powers would keep her safe and out of harm's way. But he needed to make sure of that first before trying any retaliatory action.

Dave told himself to breathe. Calm down…. Jade would be fine. She was God Tier. If anything, Dave needed to find her to help himself. Not that he was at any greater risk. But quite honestly, there was very little he could do about the present problem alone. Her help would save time. And probably keep Dave sane a bit longer.

Another breath. Dave kept his sword out but pushed himself through the wall, passing corridor after corridor to try and get to his destination.

Only once between rooms did the sound of ringing laughter echo through his thoughts.

He had to hurry.

The ship had been darkened since it was technically "night hours." Travelling through space didn't lend itself well to the concept of time of day, but they all had decided to turn the lights on and off in twelve hour shifts. But Dave was starting to regret that decision. Sprite or not, it was difficult to see.

It wasn't doing anything to make Dave feel more secure as he tore through the walls, frantic as a Strider would let himself be. And it wasn't even showing on his face. Not yet. If things got any worse, that might change.

To his dismay, of course, Jade wasn't sleeping in her room. Narcoleptic as ever, she probably wasn't even tired from that spontaneous nap she had earlier. Dave grunted a soft growl before flying straight out of the room again.

Right into John.

John who wasn't John anymore. John who smiled like a cracked mirror and had eyes that were no longer hiding the extent of madness that he nursed. Dave held up his sword, prepared to ram it through John's chest, his heart throbbing in his head.

John giggled again. A twisted, sideways chuckle that made Dave's stomach roll. Slowly he touched his feet down to the floor and reached through his sylladex, pulling out the knives. Long, sharp weapons with nine-inch blades and sawtoothed spines and points like silver thorns. Dave swallowed. Though they may have been clean, he could still see the smears and drips of red on the metal.

"Found you," John said, flipping one knife into the air before catching again. "You gonna chase me now?"

"Until death," Dave promised, tightening his grip on his sword. "Where's Jade?"

"Oh, you wanted to chase her instead?" John screwed up his mouth into a sort of pout. Dave wasn't fooled. "Well, alright! First one to her wins!"

Dave's gut vanished and his eyes flashed open as John cackled, taking off again.

"Fuck!" Dave flew through the walls, tearing through every solid surface. It was his only advantage over the speed that John could wield in the wind. Room after room, he searched, yelling her name out at every exhale.

As a last resort, he flew straight up to the helm and found her there, steering the ship, like he should've known she would be doing.

"Jade!" He flew over to her side and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly.

"Wha—! Dave…." She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed gently. "Dave, what's wrong, are you okay?"

"No, no," he said quickly, taking her by the shoulders as he pulled back. He took a few shuddering breaths. He'd tell her, but not now. It was too soon to even speak out loud. Just…just get to the important part. "John's cracked like a mirror in a drop-kicked funhouse. We need to get him somewhere he won't get all Stephen King on us."

Jade's brow scrunched a bit and she opened her mouth to say something, but words escaped her. Finally she just shook her head and said,

"What's happened this time that's got you so freaked out?"

The answer came in the knife that pushed into Dave's back, all the way into the front. Dave's mouth fell open in shock, his body tensing. Jade stared at the weapon stuck through him, horrified.

Behind Dave's shoulder, John slowly lifted into the air, smiling gently at Jade.

"He's scared because I ate him," John whispered.

Bright yellow blood poured down Dave's front, dripping onto the golden floor. Dave fell to his hands, coughing and retching up more of it in splattering pools.

"No, Dave!" Jade dropped to her knees. "It's okay, just…just hold still, okay! It'll be okay!" Shaking fingers reached for the knife and jerked back again, hesitating. Should she pull it out? Oh, gog…. What if he started bleeding to death! Could Sprites die?

"Stop it!" Jade yelled, glaring up at John with tears gushing out of her eyes. But John kept giggling, flying in tumbling circles above the two of them as Dave groaned on the floor. "John…John what the hell! I don't…. Why?"

"Ooh…if you're not careful, he's gonna get blood everywhere," John sing-songed. Another laugh. "It's kinda pretty though; guess it doesn't matter. Much more interesting than that boring red that you all have."

Jade felt her insides decay and burn up inside of her. She stood up and put herself between Dave and John. The pink monster watched her, smiling and he turned about in the air, slowly. The piercing blue eyes lit up.

"Oh, right, Jade, you're part sprite too, right?" he asked.

There was a heart-cracking yell as suddenly the knife was ripped from Dave's back and flew into John's hand. Jade froze, her eyes going wide. Yellow blood spattered across her face. John hovered there, with the weapon in his grip, watching the bright streams of color drip down the edge and over his fingers.

"Maybe your insides aren't as boring as I thought," John murmured. Slowly, his gaze shifted from the bright stains on his hand to where Jade was still standing, petrified to the bone. "Let's take a look!" Another knife flashed into existence in John's other hand and he tore towards her.

Jade lifted her hand and pushed John back with her powers, sending him all the way across the room so when he struck, he ended up tumbling forward through the air. Spurred by a surge of adrenaline and panic, she lashed out with her powers again and shrunk him, finally transporting him to the tiny gem that was the Land of Wind and Shade hovering around her wrist.

Then, quickly, she took it from its place in the planets that encircled her arm and captchalogued it, unwilling to have it on the physical plane of existence anymore.

Jade crumbled. She shuddered and crashed to her knees, scraping herself back over to Dave's side with her face cold and wet but her head burning.

"D-dave," she rasped, reaching for his hand, "Dave, are you…a-alive?"

He grunted softly, still face-down on the ground. Jade pulled up to him and looked over the stab on his back. There was blood everywhere. All over her dress and the floor and her hands.

"Oh, Dave, I don't know how to fix it!" she sobbed. "I don't know what to do!"

"Shoosh, girl," Dave said, turning his face so he could look at her. "Just…get some bandages and tie it up. Go all," another bloody cough, "go all medical bondage on that shit."

"Shut up, Strider," Jade laughed, mirthlessly. She teleported a first aid kit to herself. "Can you sit up?"

"Yeah…." Dave pushed himself up a bit and Jade wrapped her arms around his chest to get him upright.

Jade didn't let go. She couldn't. She pulled Dave into her lap and kept an arm around him as she teleported a first aid kit to herself. Yellow blood soaked, hot into the fabric of her robes. She wiped as much of it as she could from the wound on Dave's stomach and then wrapped it up.

It took a while, through tears and trembling and lingering fear that shook through them both. But eventually, Jade bandaged Dave up as well as she could and then Transported them both to his room so he could rest.

"Just…," Jade started as she pulled blankets over him. She sighed. "I'll come check on you every hour if you need something. Sleep, okay?"

"Don't have to ask me twice," Dave said. "You sure he can't get out?"

"He can't," Jade assured him. "He can stay there forever…."

"You know we can't do that," Dave said. "We're going to reach the asteroid in what, three days? They'll want to know where he is."

"What are we going to do?" It wasn't a question Jade expected an answer to. She looked down at herself, blood soaked and sticky with yellow.

Dave just stared up at the ceiling, his hand touching lightly at the bandages around his middle. They were familiar there, but he hated their return. For many reasons.

"Fuck if I don't want to," he finally grumbled. "And I don't want to _so much_ that I would much prefer shoving another sword through myself than do it. But we have to get some answers. If we show up there and don't have anything to tell everyone, hell will split open and pour its barrage of friendleader vengeance on us."

He turned his face towards Jade.

"We have to see if we can reason with that fucker."

Jade swallowed, her hands coming together as they started to shake.

"I don't want to," she said, almost inaudible. Her bottom lip trembled and she dug her teeth into it to try and stop. "Dave, I'm so scared…."

"Hey, fluffy, come on," Dave said, reaching a hand out to her. Jade snagged it instantly and fell down again, squeezing her eyes shut to hold back tears. "If we go together, there's no way he can hurt us."

"Gog, I hope so…."

Neither of them slept. Instead they kept still with the waking nightmare of their best friend who had become a monster, smiling in their looming memories.

-The Seventh Day Ends-


	5. The Eighth Day

"Are you afraid of me?"

Jade stared John in the face, pressing her teeth together and swallowing hard. Next to her, Dave gripped his sword harder, raising it just a fraction. John caught the motion and flashed Dave a quick smirk before looking right back at Jade.

"Yes," she said. She didn't sound very afraid, though.

John smiled. Sweet and placid. Hiding horrors behind pearly teeth, still as precious and goofy as ever. Absolute nightmare.

"That's cuz you're smart, Jade," John told her, tapping his shoe against the ground. Impatient. Anxious.

Dave kept his gaze firmly on John's hands, unwilling to let his guard down for even a second. He ignored the lingering ache in his stomach and flexed his grip a bit to loosen up.

"John, I just want to talk. I don't want to hurt you and I don't want you to hurt us. Can we do that?" Jade wrung her hands where they were clenched at her sides. Her eyes ached. She didn't want to cry, but Jade was teetering on the edge of an emotional precipice.

It had taken Dave only a few hours to recover, after he finally managed to get some rest. Since he didn't have an entirely new wing to construct and the stab through his gut was a tried and tired wound to begin with, it sealed back up relatively quickly. Internally, there were still some repairs to be done, but he was strong enough to get back up and defend himself.

Still, it had been an exhausting few hours and Jade slept even worse than usual. The thought of having to confront the new monster that John was set a quivering edge to her blood. It rattled in her like her breath shook in and out of her lungs. When Dave woke up, she held to him for a good half hour before even thinking of letting go.

Jade was afraid. But she wasn't going to let her fear keep her from her friend, monster or not. She'd have to understand what made the monster in order to figure out how to unmake it.

Standing there on the surface of the barren land of blue rock, surrounded by the pinch and heavy scent of oil, Jade still clung to her conviction just as tightly as Dave held his sword. She feared. But not for her own life.

"Yeah, sure," John said, beaming bright as ever. "I won't hurt you. But can't hurt me either, got it?"

"Of course," Jade said.

"Dave…."

Dave furrowed his brow, not as easily convinced. He raised his sword a little higher.

John's smile fell into an irritated pout.

"No, no, you have to promise too. Can't hit me like you did last time."

"What, you hit him?" Jade asked.

"Knee-jerk reaction," Dave muttered.

"Pfft, you don't have knees, Dave," John giggled. "But yeah, he clocked me." He pointed at his solar plexus and sighed a little. "Hurt like a dick."

"He punched you so you stabbed him?" Jade asked, incredulous.

"No," John said, turning in a slow circle, looking tired. "He punched me so I told him that it fucking hurt and then he ran, so I stabbed him." John stopped and shrugged. "Still doesn't change the fact that I don't wanna talk any more until you put that sword away, Dave. You're hurting my feelings."

"Shut the fuck up," Dave snapped, captchaloguing the sword, too hungry for answers to deal with this bullshit. "You're not John. There's no fucking way. My best bro wouldn't pull sick shit like what you did. All of it. What the fuck are you?"

"Dave, please," Jade said, putting her hand on his arm and gripping gently. She watched him for a moment but Dave remained quiet, ever vigilant of John's movements, bearing his teeth at that smile.

"John," Jade tried carefully, turning towards him, "how much can you tell us about the change? About what happened to you."

John's smile slipped away again, bringing forward an expression of troubled confusion. He sighed and dropped down to the ground, making himself comfortable and pulling his hood up. Jade cautiously lowered herself to sit in front of him, still a few feet away. Her palms stung; sweat had soaked into the crests of open skin where she'd dug her nails in.

"Not a lot," John said, making wiggly lines in the dirt. "I'm still me... I'm…still me, you have to believe me." He looked up at Jade and opened his mouth a few times, struggling to say whatever it was. "I know you said you did, but you have to hold onto that. Don't ever think anything different!"

"John," Jade said gently. One of her hands twitched like she wanted to touch him, assure him somehow. But it remained in her lap. "I still believe you." She looked him straight in the eyes, those wide, shocking blue eyes that were tinged with panic now and somehow set her blood on edge. "But like Dave said, the John I know doesn't hurt his friends. So you need to tell me why, if you want me to keep believing you."

Nearby, Dave gaped at Jade. Jeez, she could play this guy like he was her bass guitar. He watched as John instantly settled into a less defensive position and began searching for the answer in himself. Not that Dave was really going to believe anything that came out of that mouth but maybe at the very least, it could give them something to go on when they met up with the asteroid crew.

"I just," John started, stumbling over the words, "I don't know…. He ran from me. And…more than anything…I needed to stop him. Make sure he didn't run anymore."

"So you stabbed him?"

"It made sense," John insisted. "I don't know why, but it was the only thing that did."

Jade took a deep breath and sighed, biting down on her bottom lip.

"John," she said, catching his worried gaze, "you know I care about you, right?"

"Of course!" He smiled. Jade's returning grin was weak.

"But I care about Dave too."

"Of course you do," John agreed.

"And I want to keep you both safe. So, for now, I want you to stay here, on LOWAS, okay? I'll bring you food and keep you company but I think it's best for both of you if you are as separated as you can be."

Sadness fell over John's face like someone dumped a bucket of it on him in some pranking revenge. No one was laughing.

"But I love him."

The words, quiet and scared went through Jade's heart like arrows of ice. She felt a real pain there, looking into John's face and seeing the strange mix of anguish and embarrassed honesty.

"I…I do. I love him. And I love you. And I don't want to be away from either of you." John swallowed and leaned forward, hesitating, to gauge their reactions but eventually hovering over to sit right at Jade's side.

Dave took out his sword again but John didn't seem to notice. Or if he did, he didn't seem to care.

"You put me here all of a sudden," John said gently, leaning against Jade and putting his hands on top of hers. She couldn't help but shake a bit, but John kept on. "There's…no one here. No one. And I didn't know when I would ever see you two again…." He chuckled, but it was a sad thing. "I know that sounds silly now, but I kind of panicked, you know? What if…what if you just left me here forever and forgot me? What if you're still going to?" The laughs melted into short hiccups, little sobs. "It…hurts, you know?"

"Oh, John…." Jade watched the tears slip down his face. She wrapped her arms around him and tugged him close. Blond hairs tickled Jade's nose as John put his face to her neck and sniffled.

"I'm sorry I scared you," John whispered. "Please don't be afraid of me. Don't leave me here alone."

"John, I can't," Jade sniffled. "I just can't…."

She got to her feet and retreated to where Dave was, not looking back to see as John got to his feet, looking scared as ever. The fear eventually folded back into a resignation and John looked down at his feet, scraping his teeth over his bottom lip.

"…thank you for letting me hug you, Jade," he said wiping tears from his face. "It made me feel a lot better. It…it really did." John looked back up. "Dave, I know you hate me now but…could you hug me too? Here, look." John took out the knives and threw them. With the help of the wind, they blew the complete opposite direction of Dave and Jade, all the way over the horizon.

Dave had moved in front of Jade as soon as those knives had been drawn but lowered his guard a bit as he watched them vanish.

Not that it did much to convince him, but as John drew near with his hands up, Dave let the sword fall to his side, not relinquished, just quiet.

John smiled carefully and pressed himself against Dave's chest, nuzzling against the down at his neck.

"Soft," he murmured. Dave didn't move a muscle. John pulled back and looked straight into Dave's eyes, still a bit waterlogged in the face but he managed a smile.

And then a whisper that Dave almost didn't catch.

"I'll miss you."

-X-

When he and Jade were back in the golden security of the Prospit helm, he turned right to her.

"Are you completely batshit?" Dave asked, shaking his head, incredulous. "Did you forget the part where he almost turned you into a fillet of mutt the other day? I may have been turning the floor into a masterpiece of blood, sweat and tears but I sure as hell didn't miss the part where Pinky McPsychohead announced his new policy of making your insides part of his porn collection."

Jade continuously shook her head, eyes shut as she slowly moved away, heading for her bedroom. Dave followed her, of course. She couldn't just keep pulling this shit. And she said she would go visit him!

"Jade!"

"Look, Dave," she said, whipping around to look him in the face, tears in her eyes, "I know what he did! I know what he said! And yeah, what he told me just now doesn't do anything to make me feel better." Jade put a hand to her face and let out a shuddering breath. "I…I'm just having a really hard time…accepting that John could be anything but that boy who was my friend."

Jade waved her hand dismissively and continued on. "I need to be alone," she said, and disappeared down the corridor.

Dave finally put his sword away for good and gazed after her, only the wordless echo of some heartbreaking words beating in place of the blood in his heart.

_That boy was my friend too._

And she didn't even know…. Not the complete and utter nightmare that Dave had seen….

-The Eighth Day Ends-


	6. The Tenth Day

**WARNINGS:** Graphic Depictions of Violence

* * *

Jade stopped. She found a corner and tucked herself into it and kept absolutely still. Not for long. She couldn't stay forever. She had a promise to keep; she had to find John. And if she was gone longer than an hour, Dave would start to worry.

But she couldn't go on. Needed a moment….

Ten minutes, she told herself, ten minutes to pick up the pieces.

Jade flexed her fingers and brought her knees to her chest, trying not to look at anything. But it was hard.

She sniffled a bit and took deep, long breaths.

_It's not real. No way this is real. This doesn't happen; it's just your imagination. It's not real. It's not real. If it seems real, that's just because you're scared. Don't be scared. Don't be afraid of a lie._

The sounds had stopped now that she had. The voices became quiet. Even though in their chaos, she couldn't pick out one intelligible word. The silence assured Jade that she was indeed alone. There was a ripping pang through her that said she shouldn't be glad for that. But at least she wasn't in the company of whatever madness populated this awful place.

Jade steeled herself and got to her feet once more, snagging her rifle and gripping it steady with both her hands. She looked down the hallway—rotten and barren save for the decay of its own walls—to the only door and made her decision.

She was going through that door. She was going to find John. She was going to return to Dave, mind and body intact and undamaged.

Jade took deliberate steps, each one echoing loudly through the new silence. Her vigilance didn't drop once, ready for the voice-noises to start again at any moment. Jade stepped carefully over the cracks in the floor, trying to keep her eyes focused on the door. She would dart her attention in different directions, imagining sounds that weren't actually heard, doing incredible and unnecessary things to her heart rate.

_Calm down. Breathe._

Jade stopped again and took another inhale. By that point, she'd reached the door. One hand reluctantly left the gun and Jade touched her fingers to the dirty knob. A quick jiggle…. It was unlocked, and cracked open slightly. Jade gripped her gun once more and slowly nudged the rest of the door open with her foot.

The door led to a small room. Similar to the rest of the crumbling structure that once upon a time used to be John's house-tower, the space was rotted looking and empty, stained with the colors of dirt and rust and…Jade was refusing to believe that it was blood. What in the world would bleed so much? And all over the place in great smears like that?

There were pieces of ceiling hanging off crooked metal dowels and the creaking wooden skeleton of support beams was easily seen through the gaps in the windowless walls. There was glass on the floor in shards—again, inexplicable as to the origins. At the far end of the room, though, Jade could see a hole in the floor with torn up wooden boards splintered around it in the dim, flicking lights.

She exhaled and drew in another breath, glad to find the room empty as she stepped inside. Jade turned and shut the door behind herself. The latch quietly clicked into place. Jade turned and stepped further in.

And then someone pounded on the door.

With a heart hammering as loud and ferociously as the knocks that just rang through the space, Jade slowly faced the door again, wide eyed. Her hands trembled for a moment before she gripped as tight as she could onto her weapon and backed away.

There were no more knocks, nor any attempts at the knob.

Jade found no peace of mind. She stared at the door in startled horror for the better part of five minutes before finally deciding she was, indeed, alone.

_Not real... Not real…. Not real…._

Jade walked backwards to the hole in the floor, still wary of the door, though it had been silent since. When her heel hit a piece of plywood on the ground, she finally turned to see where she'd been walking.

The hole in the floor dropped to another hallway like the one she'd exited. Sighing, Jade considered that it would probably useless to go down now that she had come so far up. But…honestly, she hadn't done a thorough exploration of every floor. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to backtrack a little and see if—

"Let's become tangle buddies….tangle buddies…."

Jade jumped up from her crouch and backed away from the pit and the music that drifted up from it. A warped and twisted rendition of the Squiddles theme song that she had heard only once before…in a nightmare.

Nope. She was done. John could wait another day, Jade wasn't spending one more second in this hell.

She went right to the door and kicked it off its rusted hinges, aiming her gun right ahead for whatever terrible thing was coming after her.

"Jade!"

"AAAAH!"

She fired.

The bullet ripped through the air and Jade turned and absconded to the furthest corner of the room before hoisting her gun again, pointing it at the doorway…

where John had fallen to the floor, having been shot in the head.

Jade immediately dropped her gun and ran back to him, screaming,

"John! Oh god, oh god, no! No, John!" She fell to her knees and pulled John from the floor and the wide puddle of blood that was pouring out of him. His face was completely mangled; the bullet had ripped right through the corner of his eye, splinters of his pink-rimmed glasses stabbed into his cheeks.

Jade felt herself getting sick. She bit it back, along with her wailing and screaming and tried not to think as she pulled the fragments out of his skin. Her fingers shook. A new panic took over.

_God tier he'll be fine it was an accident just a minute oh god so much blood what if he doesn't wake up what is that oh god oh no what have I done what have I done I've killed him_

And it didn't matter if he would eventually heal or not. John was dead in her arms, his blood soaking into her skirt as she plucked glass and plastic out of the hollow sockets in his face. Jade wept loudly, barely able to continue in her task through bleary eyes and fogged glasses. She knocked them angrily off her face, smearing blood on her cheeks as she did.

Five minutes of agony when Jade had finally convinced herself that John was dead for good and suddenly he moved, startling her, but making her heart leap. The tears didn't stop. And slowly, John's flesh began mending, his eyes and nose and brains growing back (though the original carnage was still left behind).

He was completely mended in minutes, still on Jade's lap as her tears fell to his face and smeared the blood away.

John's baby blue eyes blinked up at her, wide and disturbed.

"Oh, John, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Jade curled around him, her arms wrapping awkwardly about his form in her lap and her hair fell over them like a shroud of shadow, narrowing the planet down to just the two of them, stained in blood and tears.

"Jade," John whispered, reaching up to return the graceless embrace, "that was the worst thing that has ever happened in my life."

"I know, oh god, I'm so sorry!" She repeated it over and over and over again, a steady beat to the eventual soothe of John's shooshing. But she didn't stop. Jade cried and cried until the blood on John's face had practically washed away, streaked in trails of watery, marbled pink.

He put a tighter grip on her shoulders and used that leverage to hoist himself up.

John kissed her. Put his lips in a still awkward upside-down place against her mouth and kissed Jade gently. It was enough to give her a pause in her weeping. Jade, tired and emotionally destroyed could only find it in her to panic for a split second before she just fell into the kiss. She drew her hands up his chest to cup John's chin and hold him still there.

He was alive. She could kiss him for the rest of her life, Jade was so relieved.

John sighed against her and relaxed once more, resting on her lap after their lips parted. But Jade's hands didn't leave him. She stroked his jaw and his wet cheeks and continually smoothed her fingers through his soft, blond hair, sniffling.

"John," she tried again, her voice cracking.

"Shoosh," John said, still not smiling but gentle nonetheless. "Don't say things. If you're upset or want to apologize again, just kiss me more, okay?"

Jade bit down on her bottom lip and looked into his eyes. They were so sad…. She had done that.

With only a second's hesitation, Jade bent forward again and put her lips to John's, kissing him. Another sob shook in her chest and made her mouth bump his a little clumsily. John reached up once again and stroked Jade's hair, rubbing back and forth between the dog ears on her head and scratching gently at them as he kissed her back.

Once, twice, a third time against her cheek when she shifted a little, and then back to her wet lips again, over and over.

Jade's heart changed from an empty vessel to a sort of weightless flutter. Each kiss they shared made her despair disappear and replaced it with a sense of ease. She would withdraw sometimes, and still see the heaviness in John's own gaze, but would just dip down again and kiss him more, relishing the softness and the lovely feeling of his piano fingers against the nice spot behind her ears.

"Will you ever forgive me?" Jade asked, pulling away to try and find a glitter of soft joy in the eyes of the boy she cared for dearly.

"I have," John promised her. His hand came down to brush against her cheek and he smiled a tiny grin at her. "I could never stay mad at you, Jade."

When he kissed her this time, his lips were open. His teeth mashed against her top lip a bit and when Jade tried to relieve the pressure, her own mouth opened and his tongue slipped inside.

This kiss was brief and there weren't any more like it to follow, but Jade wouldn't soon forget the hot stroke of John's tongue along her own. Not for a long while….

He rested again and giggled at her.

"Look, Jade, the nightmare's gone!"

Jade lifted her head and looked at her surroundings. Everything was back to normal. Walls were white-washed and unbroken, the windows had returned. No decay or dilapidation to speak of. Even the lights were bright and vibrant and the odd air of static and disquiet had cleared Jade's mind.

She breathed deep lungfulls of clean air and let her heart rest.

"Were you," she began, looking back down at John, who seemed happy to not move at all, "Were you lost here too."

He gave her a half smile.

"Yeah, I was," he said, "which was why I was so happy to find you. The house started falling apart almost as soon as I got here." John frowned. "I'm beginning to think I'm cursed…."

"But it's fine now," Jade said. "What's up with that?"

"It's cuz your kisses are magic!" John told her. "Kisses do amazing things in this universe. If I was cursed, I doubt I am anymore. You probably took that all away!" He grinned up at her and then put his hands over hers, drawing them down to his chest to lay over his heart.

A steady, lively beat. Jade told herself not to cry again.

"I don't like to see you sad, Jade," John said to her. "So don't ever tell me you're sorry. Just kiss me. Our kisses will make everything better." His eyes sparkled up at her. "Right?"

Jade blushed and gave a small laugh.

"Right."

She leaned in and nuzzled her nose against his and they giggled.

"Think after all the blood and guts you still have an appetite?" Jade asked quietly. "I brought you food."

"Oh, do I!" John said excitedly. He got up off of Jade's lap—she didn't miss the great smear of blood on his back from her skirt. "Come on, let's find a kitchen and eat there!"

Jade took the hand John had reached out to her and together they walked, close in step, from that room and its nightmare.

-The Tenth Day Ends-


End file.
